CompuServe Messages

Hi, Rich– Welcome to the forum! That yellow uranium-vanadium mineral might be fluorescent, as a great many uranium minerals are, making it easy to distinguish from sulfur if you have a UV lamp handy. If you can name the mineral, I can probably give a good guess as to whether it will fluoresce (UO2 in the formula would make it quite likely). In a cave, a UV lamp should be particularly good for picking out special mineral occurrences. In Alabaster Caverns, my UV lamp found a few small spots of bright yellowish-green fluorescence, indicating traces of uranium (or some rare earth), picking out something less than an inch wide from the half-mile (?) cavern. Jester cave? I was not aware of that one; is it in the same gypsum formation as Alabaster Caverns in NW OK? I am not clear where in Australia Glenn lives; you will have to ask him. Two cavers showing up in the same week strains coincidence; is this an example of someone having to say something before others of similar interests will start talking, or did something bring you and Shannon here at the same time? I am always curious as to how people find this place, so we can tell what might bring more in. –Doug